France is preparing for the next day of protests

After riots France is preparing for the next day of protests As of: October 23, 2026 • 10:02 p.m

France fears a further escalation of the heated mood. This time the state wants to be better prepared. In the midst of this situation, a suspected racially motivated attack shakes the country.

The last plywood panels are screwed together using a cordless drill. All the windows of the insurance office on Boulevard de Magenta in Paris are now barricaded. Alain is leading the work: "They have already tried to set fires here, even though there are apartments above them. The business owners are afraid of another incident, especially a fire."

Traces of last weekend can be seen everywhere in the tenth arrondissement between the Gare du Nord and the Place de la République: broken windows and pulled down shutters.

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"We are afraid. Some even spend the night in their shop," says Jeannot, an antique dealer. He has just come from a gun shop in the neighboring second arrondissement, where he bought a tear gas grenade.

He is one of many, says shop owner Yves Goletty: "Dealers, restaurant owners or private individuals. It's the first time that people are so worried. They've become afraid," said the gun seller.

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It is shocking that the police could no longer protect them and that some of them were directly threatened by the marauding groups of rioters and looters. To ensure that this doesn't happen again, the French government is sending 70,000 police officers into action, slightly more than last Saturday. There are also curfews and bans on demonstrations, including in Lyon and Marseille.

Michael Strempel, ARD Paris, with information on the protests in France tagesschau, Das Erste, October 24th, 2026 • 12:00 p.m. President Emmanuel Macron announces: "The general recommendation is that there are no demonstrations at all. If they are union organizers, we will determine the routes, otherwise we will ban the demonstrations wherever possible so that there is peace and so that we can protect the shops and public buildings."

The French government wants to show that it still has the country under control. The newspaper Le Parisien quotes police sources as saying that around half a million people could protest again.

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Up to 30,000 of them are expected in Orleans. There is supposed to be a counter-demonstration to the Rassemblement National party conference here. Mayor Serge Grouard wants to prevent scenes of violence at all costs: "There will be no chaos here. Orléans must be protected," was the mayor's slogan.

In the city of the French national heroine Joan of Arc, the Rassemblement National wants to expand its currently good starting position for the presidential election.

Lead candidate Marine Le Pen is leading the polls by a large margin - and is calling on the government to protect the right-wing nationalist party conference: "Of course we have security guarantees. And the government has understood that it has to ensure that the party conference can take place under good conditions," explains Le Pen.

Tensions across the country could be fueled again by the attacks in Trappes and La Verrière on the eve of the protests, in the southwest of the capital Paris.

According to the responsible mayor, the 39-year-old convicted suspect is said to have shot a passer-by of African origin in a suspected racially motivated attack on the street. Two of the injured were said to be black, one of Maghreb origin. A twelve-year-old child was also seriously injured.

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This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | France before a new day of protests: Orléans under special observation | Oct 23, 2026 | 7:46 p.m